The Best College Essay Intros That Actually Worked

If youre starting to give some thought as to what you should write about in your college application essay, remember: admissions officers have thousands of application essays to read. That means you need to have an essay introduction that will grab your readers attention, even if they just give it a quick glance. In the midst of the Class of 2020s acceptance, we bring to you some of the best college essay examples that actually worked:A.oh29Washington University in St. Louis(St. Louis, MO) When I was six years old, I loved to lie down on a grassy hillside by my house and stare at the clouds, anticipating what animal or object I might be able to discern in the white, whispy wonderland. My mind swirled with these breathtaking figures; they were astronomical. As a rebellious child, I sought cloud-watching to escape my seemingly monotonous home life. Even now, I will never become bored from just staring at the blue yonder. Read on.Mit_student_45 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, MA) All my life Ive been stuck right in the middle between fitting in and feeling completely different from everybody else. It wasnt easy making friends as that kid who got dropped off by his abuela every morning at a primarily white elementary school, and then again as the only Americano after my family relocated to Tlaxcala, Mexico†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. At the time, I didnt realize how many of my differences were actually strengths, but the real hindrance about this was that neither did anyone around me. View profile. serena2020Harvard University(Cambridge, MA) . . . I recently helped clean up around Cody High School with my church. I had long looked forward to doing mission work in inner-city Detroit and this was the perfect opportunity. As I picked up litter from highways and around abandoned houses near Cody, I couldn’t help wondering about the kids there. Through some radio podcasts, I learned about the dire academic and graduation outcomes of Codies.Continue reading. Grant2020 University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA) It was a dark and stormy night — but actually, it was. A new tradition arose a few years ago at our band camp, the Hunger Games (dont worry, there is absolutely no murder involved); it is an amalgamation of small, seemingly-pointless minute-to-win-it games that pit the different sections of the band against each other, proving who truly has the most spirit. Continue Reading. C.smith20 Middlebury College (Middlebury, VT) Everyone knows the old saying â€Å"How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice; Practice; Practice!† Never in a million years did I imagine that would ever be true for me. Maybe it was some arbitrary alignment of the cosmos, or maybe it was a choice. Choices as simple as what to have for breakfast can change our lives. They can affect us in ways we never imagined; they can change the very fabric of our existence. Read on. Found these college essay intros helpful? Create an account andaccess 60,000+ successfulcollege application filesuploaded by college students (they get paid when you view them). is a community of students helping students. Our goal is to bring much-needed transparency to higher education.

Airlines

Airlines Are the changes in baggage handling helping ease the mind of the frequent flier? The tragic events of September 11 caused a tremendous ripple of changes in the United States. One large and important response has been a deep revision of an important form of travel. Airport security over the past four months has been looked at under a microscope. The change in baggage handling has drawn a lot of concern. The old lackluster method for checking bags is a way of the past. The new method calls for all bags that are checked to be examined. Is this justified? Is the government worrying about the wrong aspects of air travel? Will changes like these promote or deter people from flying? The government is passing legislation to tighten up all forms of security in airports. Will this make passengers safer? Will people be compelled to fly if they know that all the baggage in the planes belly has been searched? Most people never thought the events on September 11 could happen.Biometric United State s passport issued in 2007Will this change prevent problems on airplanes? These days less people are willing to travel. If things do not get better soon many people might never fly again. It only makes sense that the government should try and make it clear in the minds of the travelers, that every possible thing is being done to make air travel safer. Are the procedures that are being put in place making people feel safer, or are they making flying a hassle for the passengers? The things that are being done by the government should make the current status of air travel better. Are United States Citizens once again becoming comfortable with flying?

Government Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 4

Government - Essay Example storical and legal front, the fact that American constitution and history never granted the approval for same sex marriages until recently on state level is another reason put forth by all those who oppose the moves of same sex practices. Going by the previous rulings of Supreme Court in the form of previous cases such as Bowers vs. Hardwick which came forth in 1986 where the actions and practices related to sodomy and homosexuality were declared illegal and illegitimate, and further the case of Romer vs. Evans case in 1996 where the final verdict was upheld as 6-3 against the grant request for allowing homosexual practices on state level, similarly other accounts of proceedings and cases put forth reveal that Supreme Court has been against the concept and practices of same sex marriages. Originally the constitution guarded for the opposite gender marriages. The pattern of same sex marriages became more prevalent towards 1990s when the formally existent law of First Restatement of Conflicts, on Marriage and Legitimacy was questioned and challenged in the court. This law was existent and related to the rulings of 1934. The long practiced customs of opposite sex marriage limitation has been challenged and questioned, both on legal and argument level grounds. It is being termed as the violation of the basic rights to the people. Freedom of expression with regard to their personal life, personal orientations and personal sexual desires and tendencies is also accounted for a reason why the same sex marriage must be allowed for practice and legal approval. As an effort to reduce the domestic expenditure, the forestry spendings is an area where the possible cut is possible. This would help the already incurred heavy losses in the form of 1 trillion plus U.S dollars. It will have positive impact on the different variables and factors associated with the annual budget and the normal living standard of the common American citizens. The possible slash on the forestry

Entry for Graduate Program Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Entry for Graduate Program - Essay Example aw enforcement officer with close to three years of professional experience, I know that a graduate degree will invaluably contribute to my professional development. I have worked in, and with, all of the Fishkill village Police Department, the NYPD, the NY Special Enforcement Bureau and the United States Secret Service and, can confidently assert that I have no doubts that law enforcement is my preferred career choice. While acknowledging that many before me, as shall many after me, have said this, as a law enforcement officer I feel fulfilled. My sense of fulfillment and satisfaction come from my awareness that I am doing my part to make life in this country just a little but safer. On a personal level, while I believe that all Americans must contribute to the increased security and safety of their society, a select few, this nation’s law enforcement officers, must devote their lives to this goal. As a foreign-born American citizen, the protection of this country and all tha t it stands for, from crime, is especially meaningful. It is meaningful because it represents my way of trying to give something back to this country and her people. I am fully cognizant of the fact that the United States is hardly short of law enforcement officers and realize that this is hardly an easy career. Nevertheless, after much soul-searching, I discovered that this is where my career interests lie. Certainly, one does not need a graduate degree in Criminology to be a law enforcement officer but, given the nation-wide crime rate, it is imperative that those who enter this profession law have a solid academic grounding. Indeed, what distinguishes one law enforcement officer from another is his/her grasp of the aforementioned. It is because of my personal determination to become an effective law enforcement officer, one who can play a role in crime deterrence or reduction that I have decided to pursue a graduate degree. On a more pragmatic level, my decision is further

Adrienne Rich and Nancy Sommers | Comparison

Adrienne Rich and Nancy Sommers | Comparison Adrienne Rich and Nancy Sommers are both women writers, that in When We Dead Awaken: Writing as Re-Vision and Between the Drafts respectively, are struggling to identify themselves as writers through the revision of their own work. In both texts we can follow their travel in past through which they recognize and analyze all those things that influenced them and formed their writing style. They are both facing the same fear. They do not write as themselves. For different reasons and each with her own perspective they are trying to break free from the bond that holds them in another writers shoes. Though Rich and Sommers are both dealing with the research of their writing self and despite the similarities in their arguments and some of their conclusions their approach differs as issues of identity, gender and tradition arise. Adrienne Rich mainly bases her text on the fact that literature and poetry where created by men, whose perspective of woman became a tradition in writing. She defines revision as the act of looking back, of seeing with fresh eyes, of entering an old text from a new critical direction1. For a writer she claims that this is an act of survival. Literature until recently gave us a view of how life is, how we see ourselves or how we would like others to see us. She recognizes a pattern in the majority of texts and poems. Women are considered a luxury for a man. They are creatures of grace and beauty. Silent, yet powerful a woman is a dream and a terror2 for men, in the words of Jane Harrison. Always distant and with almost never emotional outbreaks the historically image of a woman is that of a muse, model, nurse, cook, comforter, a bearer of his seeds3. Her inevitable fate is to suffer for love. The writer sees herself as a captive of that image. For a very long time she has been writing for women, as a man would. At first, in order to please and seek acceptance from her father, to whom she owed her education, then her professor, her mentor, followed by her fellow writers and the writing community, also male dominated. Similar to Adrienne Rich, Nacny Sommers also finds herself to write in a stereotype way. However she claims her influences came from the way she was brought up and more specifically from her parents. She does not put so much weight on her gender as a writer but she rather identifies the problem as not being able to combine academic and personal writing. Like there is an authority dictating the limits of personal and academic writing which she must not cross. This sense of authority is also something she inherited from her parents. Nancy Sommers came from German Jew Family that escaped Nazi Germany in 1939, moved to the United States where the children were brought up. She mentions examples of her family life, as evidence of parental authority. Her parents, even though they were speaking German fluently, bought tapes that instructed the language to their children, instead of talking to them. A specific ritual was followed for every lesson. The chairs at the same place, strict body posture and the voice of a German professor would for Nancy Sommes parents guarantee the right way to learn. Following the same principle of the right way to do anything her parents used a guide for their travelling, following strictly the instructions given, spending no more or no less time at each venue, making no additional stops. As if they did not have a voice of their own, as if they could not choose for themselves what to do or not to do, or even how to do it. Her parents gave her the world of two options: the right way or the wrong way. So, both our writers are influenced from authority. Rich, on the one hand, from the authority of men writers in a man dominated society, and on the other hand Sommers influenced from parental authority. When Sommer as a parent herself subconsciously embraced that same principle and projected it to her own child, she found out that, contrarily to her, her daughter had a voice of her own. Nancy Sommer had disguised herself and hid behind the title Researcher, reading and revising, exploring the knowledge of other writers. But she kept herself out of her own writing, being absent from her own work. Just like her parents hid behind the tapes and the guides and excluded themselves from their lives, creating and living someone elses experiences, she hid behind the authority of a researcher and used other peoples work to justify her statements. Never once did she use her personal experiences to support her statements. Another similarity between Rich and Sommers lies within their position on the role of the writer in respect to tradition. Rich is facing artistic tradition, of the way writers write about women, their image and how she as writer is able to cop with all her roles: that of a traditional female and of a writer. As a wife and a mother Rich found it hard to find free time, to think, to question, to imagine; free time that traditionally women never have as they are mainly loaded with the duties of raising children and caring for the family. But following the traditional way of performing female duties is in direct conflict with the main element of writing: imagination. Daily duties, put aside any imaginative activity, that can be put in words. Adrienne Rich felt the conflict between these two roles. She thought herself as a writer or as a mother. The choice of either and or was later replace by and. She sought ways to embrace both parts of her life, the creative one and the maternal one. Likewise Sommers faces again tradition, yet of another kind. Academic tradition is full with either/or sentences: the students are either taught to write academic or personal essays. This tradition seems to create a certainty, an illusion of control to the academic community. Everyone knows their exact role and what they are supposed to do. But Nancy Sommers identifies the fact that students carry their own experiences, their own voices and if encouraged they could use these experiences as evidence to support their own statements, thus creating a new reflective way of writing. In both texts, tradition is questioned, whether artistic or academic as a result of a revision, a deeper look in ones writing, from a different perspective, with a fresh eye. Both writers emphasize the importance of breaking the tradition, that narrows the imagination and this might be their most important common statement. Even though they are both objecting to different kind of tradition they both have the same objective, to help writers, including them, to write for themselves, to use their own experiences and voice, to write from their point of view, breaking every stereotype of either artistic or academic writing. Rich and Sommers mention incidents of their personal and family lives. It is interesting how these specific events reflect the obedience of authority they inherited from their close environment. They follow traditional models, artistic and academic, that forces boundaries to their imagination and self expression. Rich show us how the traditional female model kept her captive in just one role, that of a mother and eliminated her fantasy, thus her writing. Sommers from the other side illustrates how her parentss sense of authority influenced her own perception of authority, this time the academic one, upon her writing. Even though both writers are of female gender their arguments and conclusions also apply to non female writers. They are both looking for way to express purely themselves in their own writing, creating their own images, with no influence of tradition artistic or academic. Using a female point of view, they have managed to reach a problematic area for all writers. Both male and female writers should be able to speak for themselves and use their imagination, freely creating texts and statements which are supported with their own experiences. As mentioned before, both writers notice that there is something missing from their writing. And that something is their own voice, their own point of view. Trapped in the tradition they learned to obey they do not use their own experiences and images in their work. Their similarity lies upon the fact that they were both raised under the influence of tradition. Even though they have a different point of view when revising their work, they come to the same conclusion mainly because the source of their conservatism is the same: obedience to authority. According to Rich, the role of a writer is to create images through words. These images influence other writers and especially women, as they seek their path reading poetry and literature, trying to find ways of expression, looking for examples. And in this effort they come across again and again with the image of Woman in books written by men. But what they do not find is a way to express their own personality in their text, rather than reflect and reproduce a flattering or not image created by another writer. I find it easy to agree with Richs statement. I have often read literature and identified myself with the woman hero of the book. I found my self to be flattered with similarities of character. Of course, in every attempt to write about my self, or to tell a story, I tend to reflect the same image of the woman I read about in my own writing. It is not that I have nothing to say for myself, rather than I find that image charming and want others to see me in this way. Still like Sommers, I am absent from most of my texts. Certainly influenced by my female gender, I tend to have a more romantic and soft approach in my writing. My class and culture are also reflected in my texts as a have no experience from anything different and thus I can not write about it. However the presence of my own experiences is limited in my writing. Mainly because I think of myself as insecure and that I do not have a strong enough statement to make. Another reason is that I find it easier, and I believe I am not the only one to do so, to talk about others than talk about myself. Talking about oneself requires painful digging to reach to self awareness. Of course the fear of revealing personal experiences to others plays its part as well, as again I do not intend to mess my traditional female image, with outbursts of anger, anxiety, passion, and obsession. Adrienne Rich: When We Dead Awaken: Writing as Re-Vision, p.18 J.G. Steward, Jane Ellen Harrison: A Portrait from Letters (London 1959), p. 140 Adrienne Rich: When We Dead Awaken: Writing as Re-Vision, p.19

Case Study of the Spanish Retail Chain Zara

The Spanish retail chain, Zara, owned by Inditex is a retailer that has been so successful in our world of globalization and new technologies today by simply adopting a new approach in the industry. With their simple business model of speed, flexibility, and high fashion, Zara has the competitive advantage to be sustainable. Zara was founded by Amancio Ortega Gaona (Ortega), in 1975 and went on to become the flagship brand of the holding company, Industria de Diseno Textil, SA, popularly called Inditex, which was founded in 1979. As of 2002, Inditex operated six separate chains, that being, Zara, Massimo Dutti, Pull & Bear, Bershka, Stradivarius, and Oysho. However, each chain operates independently and is responsible for its own strategy, product design, sourcing and manufacturing, distribution, image, personnel, and financial results. Zara, which contributes around 80 per cent of group sales (Grant 2005, p. 398), is by far the largest, most profitable, and most internationalized of the chains. Its stores can now be found in the most important shopping districts of more than 400 cities in Europe, the Americas, Asia and Africa. With year-on-year sales increasing at around 25% over the last 5 years, it has become one of the world’s fastest growing retailers (University of Cambridge Institute for Manufacturing). Discussion The global apparel market is a consumer-driven industry (Criag, Jones & Nieto, 2004) in which profits derived from â€Å"unique combinations of high-value research, design, sales, marketing, and financial services that allow retailers, branded marketers, and branded manufacturers to act as strategic brokers in linking overseas factories†Ã¢â‚¬Ëœ with markets (Collins 2003, p. 44). Zara's business model can be broken down into three basic components: concept, capabilities, and value drivers. Zara's fundamental concept is to maintain design, production, and distribution processes that will enable Zara to respond quickly to shifts in consumer demands and tastes. The main business tactics of the company in context of its business model is:- (i) Short lead time: More fashionable clothes and embracing quick changing customer's tastes. (ii) Decentralized Management: Taking advantage of the intelligence and trust the judgment of employees. (iii) Lower quantities: Inventory will be formidable burden in perishable products. (iv) More styles: Providing more choices for customers and more chances of meeting the customers taste. At the heart of Zara's success is a vertically integrated business model spanning design, just-in-time production, marketing and sales. The distinctive vertical integration feature of Zara’s business model, has allowed the company to successfully develop a strong merchandising strategy. This strategy has led Zara to create a climate of scarcity and opportunity as well as a fast-fashion system. Currently, H&M is Inditex’s major competitor. Swedish retailer H&M has been growing at an average rate of 20% annually in the past two decades. These two European retailers are known for their ‘fast fashion’ had unique business models and growth strategies which have enabled them to expand quickly and successfully beyond their own borders. With the European markets becoming saturated, Both companies are expanding outside Europe and establish their hegemony in the world market. Yet what is it that distinguishes Zara from H&M and its other competitors? In its process of expanding globally, Zara, unlike its competitors such as Gap, Benetton, and H&M, does not use cheap Asian outsourcing. Eighty percent of Zara’s materials are manufactured in Europe, with fifty percent made in Zara controlled facilities in the Galicia region of Spain near headquarters. Though the cost of production in Spain more expensive compared to Asia, Zara still manages to maintain competitive advantage over its competitors in regards to operations. Zara maintains local strategic partnerships with manufacturers and suppliers in Europe and this proximity gives Zara great flexibility in adapting their product lines based on up to date market trends and consumer behaviour while decreasing costs of holding inventory. This proximity effect and the flexibility give Zara its competitive edge in comparison to their peers. However, the business strategies adopted by Zara, does have its setbacks to Zara’s success. The vertical integration concept often leads to the inability to acquire economies of scale, which means Zara cannot gain the advantages of producing large quantities of goods for a discounted rate which leads to higher costs being incurred as they have to set a higher pricing of Zara products outside of Europe in order to cover supply costs. Zara has not invested in distribution facilities to support their global expansion. As a result, despite being able to quickly supply their stores at present, they may not be able to supply to a larger number of retail locations due to their â€Å"centralized logistic† model. Even though Zara has been successful at scaling up its distribution system, the centralized logistics system might eventually be subject to diseconomies of scale as Zara continues to open stores all around the world and ships product from its single Distribution Center in Europe. This system may work well with the current number of stores because majority of the stores are centralised in Europe. However, Zara won’t be benefiting from short lead times and low operational cost with a single central Distribution Center model in terms of globalisation and branching out into other countries. Conclusion To successfully expand globally, Zara should focus on one country at a time. Our team concludes that Zara’s current focus should be international expansion in a country that has an open trade market with well formed trade regulations as this provides a safer business environment. During the globalization process, Zara should maintain short lead time, quick inventory turnover, leading fashion brand and low advertising cost as its competitive advantage. As a result of their product cycle, Zara gives their customers the feeling of scarcity because new items are presented weekly and are often not restocked, and this encourages customers to come to the stores and buy frequently. As such, Zara invests more in their store layouts as compared to marketing. Their cost advantage and ability to maintain brand recognition and customer loyalty along with other factors such as regional distribution center, vertical integration, outsourcing and eye-catching window displays are essential elements for Zara to build value in the company and to continue to re-invent and innovate themselves to stay fresh in the apparel industry.

Green Marketing Strategy of Businesses

Green marketing has been an important academic research topic since it came about (Coddington, 1993; Fuller, 1999; Ottman, 1994). Attention was drawn to the subject in the late 1970’s when the American Marketing Association organized the first ever workshop on ‘Ecological Marketing’ in 1975 which resulted in the first book on the subject, entitled, ‘Ecological Marketing’ by Henion and Kinnear in 1976. The first definition of ‘green marketing’ was according to Henion (1976); â€Å"the implementation of marketing programs directed at the environmentally conscious market segment† (Banerjee, 1999, p. 8). Peattie and Crane (2005) claims that despite the early development, it was only in the late 1980’s that the idea of green marketing actually made an appearance, because of the consumers’ growing interest in green products, increased awareness and willingness to pay for green features. Henion’s (1976) definition of green marketing has evolving and many more definitions of green marketing have arisen throughout the years. One of the latter definitions is Fuller’s (1999, p. ): The process of planning, implementing, and controlling the development, pricing, promotion, and distribution of products in a manner that satisfies the following three criteria: (1) customer needs are met, (2) organizational goals are attained, and (3) the process is compatible with ecosystems. The first indication of consumer interest in green products came through Vandermerwe and Oliff? s (1990) survey. This stated that more than 92% of European multinationals claimed to have changed their products in response to green concerns and 85% claimed to have changed their product systems (Peattie & Crane, 2005). Green product introductions increased by more than double to 11. 4% of all new household products in the USA between 1989 and 1990, and continued to rise to 13. 4% in 1991 (ibid. ). However, this optimistic start to the 1990’s was not sustained (Peattie & Crane, 2005. A report conducted by Mintel in 1995, showed only a very slight increase in green consumers since 1990, and showed a significant gap between concern and actual purchasing (ibid. ). This can be attributed to the fact that consumers do not want to compromise on price, quality or convenience when conducting a ‘green’ purchase (D?  Souza et al. , 2006). The frequency and prominence of green claims was also found to be in decline (Peattie & Crane, 2005). So instead of the â€Å"green revolution† in marketing forecasted for the 1990s, companies became more cautious about launching environmentally-based communications campaigns for fear of being accused of â€Å"greenwashing† (ibid). This is when a company hides the true effect of its products or actions on the environment, by making it seem as though the company is very concerned about the environment (Greenwashing, 2009). One challenge green marketers — old and new — are likely to face as green products and messages become more common is confusion in the marketplace. â€Å"Consumers do not really understand a lot about these issues, and there's a lot of confusion out there,† says Jacquelyn Ottman (founder of J. Ottman Consulting and author of â€Å"Green Marketing: Opportunity for Innovation†). Marketers sometimes take advantage of this confusion, and purposely make false or exaggerated â€Å"green† claims. Critics refer to this practice as â€Å"green washing†. Even though this revolution did not occur as predicted, the interest in the topic has not died down. Grant (2007, pp. 20-24) claims that green marketing is at a tipping point and that what we do next will decide if the topic continues to develop and gain momentum. The popularity of such marketing approach and its effectiveness is hotly debated. Supporters claim that environmental appeals are actually growing in number–the Energy Star label, for example, now appears on 11,000 different companies' models in 38 product categories, from washing machines and light bulbs to skyscrapers and homes. However, despite the growth in the number of green products, green marketing is on the decline as the primary sales pitch for products. On the other hand, Roper’s Green Gauge shows that a high percentage of consumers (42%) feel that environmental products don’t work as well as conventional ones. This is an unfortunate legacy from the 1970’s when showerheads sputtered and natural detergents left clothes dingy. Given the choice, all but the greenest of customers will reach for synthetic detergents over the premium-priced, proverbial â€Å"Happy Planet† any day, including Earth Day. New reports however show a growing trend towards green products.   This provides information regarding the setting of the study and/or general information about preview of the topic. The term Green Marketing came into prominence in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The American Marketing Association (AMA) held the first workshop on â€Å"Ecological Marketing† in 1975. The proceedings of this workshop resulted in one of the first books on green marketing entitled â€Å"Ecological Marketing†. The first wave of Green Marketing occurred in the 1980s. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Reports started with the ice cream seller Ben & Jerry's where the financial report was supplemented by a greater view on the company's environmental impact. In 1987 a document prepared by the World Commission on Environment and Development defined sustainable development as meeting â€Å"the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own need†, this became known as the Brundtland Report and was another step towards widespread thinking on sustainability in everyday activity. Two tangible milestones for wave 1 of green marketing came in the form of published books, both of which were called Green Marketing. They were by Ken Peattie (1992) in the United Kingdom and by Jacquelyn Ottman (1993) in the United States of America. According to Jacquelyn Ottman, (author of Green Marketing: Opportunity for Innovation) from an organizational standpoint, environmental considerations should be integrated into all aspects of marketing— new product development and communications and all points in between. The holistichttp://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Holistic nature of green also suggests that besides suppliers and retailers new stakeholders be enlisted, including educators, members of the community, regulators, and NGOs. Environmental issues should be balanced with primary customer needs. The past decade has shown that harnessing consumer power to effect positive environmental change is far easier said than done. The so-called â€Å"green consumer† movements in the U. S. and other countries have struggled to reach critical mass and to remain in the forefront of shoppers' minds. While public opinion polls taken since the late 1980s have shown consistently that a significant percentage of consumers in the U. S. and elsewhere profess a strong willingness to favor environmentally conscious products and companies, consumers' efforts to do so in real life have remained sketchy at best. One of green marketing's challenges is the lack of standards or public consensus about what constitutes â€Å"green,† according to Joel Makower, a writer on green marketing. In essence, there is no definition of â€Å"how good is good enough† when it comes to a product or company making green marketing claims. This lack of consensus—by consumers, marketers, activists, regulators, and influential people—has slowed the growth of green products, says Makower, because companies are often reluctant to promote their green attributes, and consumers are often skeptical about claims. Despite these challenges, green marketing has continued to gain adherents, particularly in light of growing global concern about climate change. This concern has led more companies to advertise their commitment to reduce their climate impacts, and the effect this is having on their products and services. This provides the concise description of the issues that need to be addressed. It also provide why these variables are important so it focus on it. The ongoing marketing paradigm, according to Peattie (1999, p. 57), is based on using the earth’s resources and systems in an unsustainable manner. The traditional view on corporate social responsibility, which argues that corporation manager’s and director’s only responsibilities are to the â€Å"owners† of the firm and to maximize profit, started changing in the early nineties to include a responsibility not only to those with a vested interest in the corporation (Klonoski, 1991). Instead a company must consider the effect of its actions on all stakeholders, including nature and animals (ibid. ). Many of the serious environmental issues we face are due to modern development and the pursuit of econoy Peattie, 1999, p. 58). However, making these crucial changes occur requires more than individual change; change on a societal and economic level will be necessary (Grant, 2007, p. 47; Hartmann & Ibanez, 2006). Hence, governments will need to commit to developing forward thinking environmental policies (Peattie, 1999; Grant, 2008). Corporations must integrate greening into their business strategy and invest in the development of it as they would any other aspect of their business (Polonski & Rosenberger, 2001). Finally, the consumers have to actually purchase the environmentally friendly products they, so far, only claim to be interested in (Ginsberg & Bloom, 2004). In the end though, going green needs to make business sense for the corporation and not require a compromise on product attributes for the consumer. Marketers have a tremendous potential to help make this shift happen by pushing organizations to implement some form of a green marketing strategy (Peattie & Crane, 2005; Grant, 2007, p. 32). Marketers have the power to help „sell? new lifestyle ideas (Grant, 2007, p. 1) According to Ottman (1993) green marketing serves two key objectives: 1) To develop products that incorporate consumers? eeds for convenience, affordable pricing and performance while having a minimal impact on the environment. 2) To project an image of high quality, including environmental aspects, both in regards to product attributes and the manufacturer’s track record for environmental compliance. If a paradigm shift from conventional to green marketing occurs, corporations will need to incorporate sustainability into their strategies or risk being left behind (Grant, 2008). It will be important for organizations and marketers to be well-versed on the subject and have a thorough understanding of green marketing and how it can create value. Since the mid-nineties environmental legislation has increased, leading to a higher level of awareness of environmental issues in the business community and many corporations being required to consider these issues in their strategic planning in order to meet stricter environmental standards (Banerjee, 1999, p. 18; Olson, 2008). Regardless of legislation and standards many people are calling for corporations in general to take more responsibility for their actions and the consequences thereof. Green marketing concept is fairly young and as a consequence it has not been extensively explored or research yet (Grant, 2007, p. ; Hartmann & Ibanez, 2006; Baker & Sinkula, 2005). Olson (2008) claims that while many corporations have implemented some form of green initiative, very few have actually established an enterprise-level green strategy. He furthers states that, while it may vary depending on industry and possibly by individual business, early adoption of a formalized and well-articulated green strategy can allow companies the opportunity of a competitive advantage. Considering Olson’s statement, one wonders how corporations, that have indeed incorporated some form of green thinking into the business, have done so and for what reasons. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to gain a deeper understanding of the subject of strategic green marketing by examining how strategic green marketing can be developed and what incentives companies have to do so. In order to fulfill this purpose, four research questions were developed. One objective of a marketing strategy is to optimize the marketing mix in relation to the wants and needs of the target market (Fuller, 1999, p. 330). Data from the targeted business consumers can provide valuable input for the decision making process (ibid. . 320). Fuller (1999, p. 330) further states that mass-undifferentiated marketing will often fail to ensure customer satisfaction and profit and that segmenting the market provides a more realistic market interpretation. The first research question is therefore: RQ1: How do companies segment their market based on business consumers’ green tendencies? Polonsky and Rosenberger (2001, p. 22) claim that â€Å"in true green marketing, environmental issues become an overriding strategic corporate focus rather than simply one strategic action†. When forming a green marketing strategy it is important to realize that, just as in conventional marketing, there is no single strategy that will work for all companies (Ginsberg & Bloom, 2004; Fuller, 1999, p. 330). Instead each company must examine what strategy will work best depending on its own individual objectives, resources, target market, competitive conditions and so on (Polonsky & Rosenberger, 2001). According to Olson (2008), many companies pass up significant benefits because they do not look at green opportunities in a strategic context. This brings us to research question two: RQ2: How do companies choose their green marketing strategy? Implementing a green marketing strategy requires a fundamental, holistic, integrated approach across all functional marketing areas, including the entire marketing mix of targeting, pricing, design, positioning and promotion (Polonsky & Rosenberger, 2001). According to Fuller (1999, p. 109), only companies that are truly committed to environmental concerns and are willing to translate those concerns into action through marketing mix decisions can develop viable green marketing strategies. Due to these facts, research question three was developed: RQ3: How do companies’ choices of green marketing strategy influence their marketing mix? Authors such as Porter and van der Linde (1995) and Elkington (1994) argue that environmentally superior strategies exist, which can create a competitive advantage by stimulating innovation and tapping into consumer concerns. Fuller (1999, p. 39) states that worldwide corporate practices suggest that a competitive advantage can indeed be earned and companies not implementing a green marketing strategy will be viewed as uncompetitive, unresponsive, and out of touch with emerging global markets. However, others argue that greening strategy is difficult to do in practice (Walley & Whitehead, 1994). Managers need strategies that transform environmental investments into sources of competitive advantage by optimizing the economic return on their investments (Orsato, 2006). This lead to the fourth, and final, research question: RQ4: How do companies obtain a competitive advantage through their green marketing? The obvious assumption of green marketing is that potential consumers will view product or service's â€Å"greenness† as a benefit and base their buying decision accordingly. The not-so-obvious assumption of green marketing is that consumers will be willing to pay more for green products than they would for a less-green comparable alternative product – an assumption that, in my opinion, has not been proven conclusively. This green marketing approach is largely used as a gimmick by the gigantic corporate houses in order to make a difference in the consumer’s point of view when it comes to major market decisions. Many firms are beginning to realize that they are members of the wider community and therefore must behave in an environmentally responsible fashion. So green marketing is also a way of looking at how marketing activities can make the best use of these limited resources while meeting corporate objectives. Thus an environmental committed organization may not only produce goods that have reduced their detrimental impact on the environment, they may also be able to pressure their suppliers to behave in a more environmentally â€Å"responsible† fashion. Final consumers and industrial buyers also have the ability to pressure organizations to integrate the environment into their corporate culture and thus ensure all organizations minimize the detrimental environmental impact of their activities. With the human wants escalating heavily, the resources are decreasing. Hence it has become mandatory for the marketers across the globe to use the resources efficiently and not waste them under any circumstances. Worldwide surveys indicate that consumers globally are changing their behavior towards products and services. Green marketing is almost inevitable as the market for socially responsible products is increasing greatly. This provides what the study covers and fix its boundaries. Limitations specify certain constraints in the study which are essential, but which the researcher has no control of. Although the business-to-consumer (B2C) segment is a major contributor to the damage of the global environment and that a significant change in attitude is necessary, this thesis will only focus on the business-to-business (B2B) segment. The study is not limited to one industry but is examining a range of B2B firms with the purpose of gaining a deeper understanding of green marketing strategies in an overall business context. Most research conducted on the topic of green marketing is focused on the B2C market and the author’s consider there to be a significant lack of knowledge available when it comes to the B2B market. Furthermore, the authors? were intrigued by the apparent opportunities available to companies choosing to go green.